The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. The eight MDGs aim to eradicate or reduce poverty, hunger, child mortality and disease, and to promote education, maternal health, gender equality, environmental sustainability and global partnerships. The target date for achieving the MDGs is 2015.

Sport has been recognised as a viable and practical tool to assist in the achievement of the MDGs. While sport does not have the capacity to tackle solely the MDGs, it can be very effective when part of a broad, holistic approach to addressing the MDGs.

National Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) provide the guiding framework for low-income countries in their efforts to attain the MDGs. A number of countries (including Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda) have integrated sport into their PRSPs. Many developing countries, however, are still unaware of the ways in which Sport for Development and Peace can be used to advance their development objectives. In these cases, advocacy is needed to position Sport for Development and Peace as a valuable cross-cutting tool for achieving the MDGs.

UN Secretary-General's video message about the need to accelerate action on the MDGs in the 1,000 days until the 2015 target date.

We have 1,000 Days to the end of 2015 – 1,000 Days for action [from 5 April 2013], 1,000 Days to finish the work of the MDGs, which will lay the foundation for a new development agenda.We need to accelerate action and scale up what works -- with contributions from national governments, the international community, civil society and the private sector. We need to reduce inequalities and press forward on many fronts – such as improving food security, maternal health, sanitation, rural development, environmental sustainability and responses to climate change.

The MDGs are not just abstract or aspirational targets. Achieving the Goals is about making a real difference in people’s lives. The MDGs stand for a world of prosperity, equity, freedom, dignity and peace – as embodied in the Millennium Declaration. With 2015[i] as a stepping stone to these broad objectives, the UN is working with governments, civil society and other partners to build on the momentum generated and lessons learned from the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.

[i] Projections indicate that in 2015 more than 600 million people worldwide will still be using unimproved water sources, almost one billion will be living on an income of less than $1.25 per day, mothers will continue to die needlessly in childbirth, and children will suffer and die from preventable diseases. [MDG Report 2012]